Call: +34 876555483
Email: abrego@unizar.es
Address: Office 31.080 c/Mariano Esquillor SN Edificio I+D+i, I3A, GPT Zaragoza Aragón
ABOUT ME
Research Interests
Broadly, my research focus is on pyrolysis of organic waste and biomass. I am currently interested in the development of new and/or improved thermochemical processes for biofuels and bioproducts.
Specifically, we are now developing a carbon-negative pyrolysis system with autothermal operation. Operational tests are ongoing. We seek to further develop and scale-up this idea, ideally with an industry partner.
Simultaneously, I work in the development of integrated valorization approaches of various agricultural or animal residues via pyrolysis, and its integration with biomethane production.
I have also collaborated in the development of the Flash Carbonization technology developed by Professor Michael J. Antal at University of Hawai’i as a Visiting Scholar, and worked at Instituto de Carboquímica (Spanish National Research Council), both in postdoctoral positions.
Previously to my PhD research, I also worked in gasification (fluidized bed and downdraft reactors) at demonstration scale.
PUBLICATIONS
2009
Ábrego, Javier; Arauzo, Jesús; Sánchez, José Luis; Gonzalo, Alberto; Cordero, Tomás; Rodríguez-Mirasol, José
Structural changes of sewage sludge char during fixed-bed pyrolysis Journal Article
In: Industrial and Engineering Chemistry Research, vol. 48, no. 6, pp. 3211–3221, 2009, ISSN: 08885885.
@article{Abrego2009,
title = {Structural changes of sewage sludge char during fixed-bed pyrolysis},
author = {Javier Ábrego and Jesús Arauzo and José Luis Sánchez and Alberto Gonzalo and Tomás Cordero and José Rodríguez-Mirasol},
url = {https://pubs.acs.org/sharingguidelines},
doi = {10.1021/ie801366t},
issn = {08885885},
year = {2009},
date = {2009-03-01},
journal = {Industrial and Engineering Chemistry Research},
volume = {48},
number = {6},
pages = {3211--3221},
publisher = {American Chemical Society},
abstract = {Undigested dried sewage sludge from a wastewater treatment plant was pyrolyzed at temperatures between 300 and 900 °C, with an additional hold time at the highest temperature. A fixed-bed reactor was used with a heating rate of 20 °C/min under an atmosphere of nitrogen. Pyrolysis product distribution, FTIR, XRD, BET, SEM, and ultimate and proximate analyses were used to gain a better understanding of the structural changes occurring during pyrolysis. At low to medium pyrolysis temperatures, major mass loss occurs, and most of the gaseous and liquid products are released with little porous development, whereas at temperatures between 700 and 900 °C, structural changes seem to be triggered by calcium carbonate decomposition. This leads to a second stage of gas evolution, as CaO promotes gasification of the char in the presence of iron sulfides. The subsequent release of CO runs parallel with an increase in the BET surface area. In addition, the aromatic character of the char increases with temperature, and nanotube-like tubular structures can be detected by SEM. textcopyright 2009 American Chemical Society.},
keywords = {},
pubstate = {published},
tppubtype = {article}
}
Undigested dried sewage sludge from a wastewater treatment plant was pyrolyzed at temperatures between 300 and 900 °C, with an additional hold time at the highest temperature. A fixed-bed reactor was used with a heating rate of 20 °C/min under an atmosphere of nitrogen. Pyrolysis product distribution, FTIR, XRD, BET, SEM, and ultimate and proximate analyses were used to gain a better understanding of the structural changes occurring during pyrolysis. At low to medium pyrolysis temperatures, major mass loss occurs, and most of the gaseous and liquid products are released with little porous development, whereas at temperatures between 700 and 900 °C, structural changes seem to be triggered by calcium carbonate decomposition. This leads to a second stage of gas evolution, as CaO promotes gasification of the char in the presence of iron sulfides. The subsequent release of CO runs parallel with an increase in the BET surface area. In addition, the aromatic character of the char increases with temperature, and nanotube-like tubular structures can be detected by SEM. textcopyright 2009 American Chemical Society.
Casajus, C; Ábrego, Javier; Marias, Frederic; Vaxelaire, J; Sánchez, José Luis; Gonzalo, Alberto
Product distribution and kinetic scheme for the fixed bed thermal decomposition of sewage sludge Journal Article
In: Chemical Engineering Journal, vol. 145, no. 3, pp. 412–419, 2009, ISSN: 13858947.
@article{Casajus2009,
title = {Product distribution and kinetic scheme for the fixed bed thermal decomposition of sewage sludge},
author = {C Casajus and Javier Ábrego and Frederic Marias and J Vaxelaire and José Luis Sánchez and Alberto Gonzalo},
doi = {10.1016/j.cej.2008.08.033},
issn = {13858947},
year = {2009},
date = {2009-01-01},
journal = {Chemical Engineering Journal},
volume = {145},
number = {3},
pages = {412--419},
publisher = {Elsevier},
abstract = {In this paper, a new kinetic model for the thermal decomposition of dry sewage sludge was determined. In order to achieve this main objective, various experiments were carried out to collect enough information for the estimation of the different numerical parameters of the model. These experiments include both results from a fixed bed pyrolysis installation and a thermogravimetric analysis device. The experiments allowed for the detailed monitoring of the dynamical evolution of the mass of the sample under investigation, together with the cumulative amounts of tars and permanent gases produced during thermal decomposition of sewage sludge at low heating rates (5-20 °C/min). Solid mass loss during the pyrolysis shows two regions, between 150 °C and 600 °C, where most of the tar is depleted from the solid and non-condensible gases are formed, and a second one between 600 °C and 900 °C where mainly only non-condensible gases are produced. The solid fraction accounted for about 50% of the initial weight, tar around 30% and gases the remaining 20%. Regarding the formation of non-condensible gases from low temperature, a new kinetic scheme was proposed involving an initial decomposition step of the sludge yielding tar and gases as gas phase products and a solid intermediate compound which decomposes at higher temperatures, giving the char fraction and more non-condensible gases. The comparison between the numerical prediction and the experimental results was excellent. textcopyright 2008 Elsevier B.V. All rights reserved.},
keywords = {},
pubstate = {published},
tppubtype = {article}
}
In this paper, a new kinetic model for the thermal decomposition of dry sewage sludge was determined. In order to achieve this main objective, various experiments were carried out to collect enough information for the estimation of the different numerical parameters of the model. These experiments include both results from a fixed bed pyrolysis installation and a thermogravimetric analysis device. The experiments allowed for the detailed monitoring of the dynamical evolution of the mass of the sample under investigation, together with the cumulative amounts of tars and permanent gases produced during thermal decomposition of sewage sludge at low heating rates (5-20 °C/min). Solid mass loss during the pyrolysis shows two regions, between 150 °C and 600 °C, where most of the tar is depleted from the solid and non-condensible gases are formed, and a second one between 600 °C and 900 °C where mainly only non-condensible gases are produced. The solid fraction accounted for about 50% of the initial weight, tar around 30% and gases the remaining 20%. Regarding the formation of non-condensible gases from low temperature, a new kinetic scheme was proposed involving an initial decomposition step of the sludge yielding tar and gases as gas phase products and a solid intermediate compound which decomposes at higher temperatures, giving the char fraction and more non-condensible gases. The comparison between the numerical prediction and the experimental results was excellent. textcopyright 2008 Elsevier B.V. All rights reserved.
2006
Manyà, Joan Josep; Sánchez, José Luis; Ábrego, Javier; Gonzalo, Alberto; Arauzo, Jesús
Influence of gas residence time and air ratio on the air gasification of dried sewage sludge in a bubbling fluidised bed Journal Article
In: Fuel, vol. 85, no. 14-15, pp. 2027–2033, 2006, ISSN: 00162361.
@article{Manya2006b,
title = {Influence of gas residence time and air ratio on the air gasification of dried sewage sludge in a bubbling fluidised bed},
author = {Joan Josep Manyà and José Luis Sánchez and Javier Ábrego and Alberto Gonzalo and Jesús Arauzo},
doi = {10.1016/j.fuel.2006.04.008},
issn = {00162361},
year = {2006},
date = {2006-10-01},
journal = {Fuel},
volume = {85},
number = {14-15},
pages = {2027--2033},
publisher = {Elsevier},
abstract = {Because little information is available about sewage sludge gasification in a bubbling fluidised bed (BFB), further experiments are required to quantify the power generation potential of dried sewage sludge (DSS) as well as to evaluate the optimum conditions for its gasification. In this work, the influence of the bed height on the process was experimentally determined using a laboratory-scale BFB reactor. The gasification tests were performed at different values of equivalence ratio ($łambda$) and at two values of constant bed height (150 and 300 mm). Attention was focused on the effect of increasing bed height on the gas composition, average cold gas efficiency, and product distribution. Results obtained in this study show that a bed height increase improves the efficiency of the DSS gasification process. This fact could be explained because the high ash content of DSS represents an obstacle to the gas diffusion. textcopyright 2006 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved.},
keywords = {},
pubstate = {published},
tppubtype = {article}
}
Because little information is available about sewage sludge gasification in a bubbling fluidised bed (BFB), further experiments are required to quantify the power generation potential of dried sewage sludge (DSS) as well as to evaluate the optimum conditions for its gasification. In this work, the influence of the bed height on the process was experimentally determined using a laboratory-scale BFB reactor. The gasification tests were performed at different values of equivalence ratio ($łambda$) and at two values of constant bed height (150 and 300 mm). Attention was focused on the effect of increasing bed height on the gas composition, average cold gas efficiency, and product distribution. Results obtained in this study show that a bed height increase improves the efficiency of the DSS gasification process. This fact could be explained because the high ash content of DSS represents an obstacle to the gas diffusion. textcopyright 2006 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved.